At present no method exists for making an on site diagnosis of the performance and production activity of electrical equipment in a facility or for determining if the equipment individually and/or in concert is consuming power wastefully. The power consumption in a factory, plant, building etc. is currently measured on an overall basis for the entire plant or for a specific installation or unit of equipment in the facility. This is done primarily to determine the cost of electricity in the operation of the facility and/or the cost of electricity to run individual units of electrical equipment in the facility and to analyze overall cost. This is also useful for determining the overall efficiency of the facility or of a given unit of electrical equipment. A technique currently used in the measurement of power consumption is to identify and analyze periods of peak power consumption either for the entire facility or for one or more selected units of electrical equipment either individually or in combination. By measuring peak power consumption an analysis can be made as to when to reduce power for the purpose of conservation of energy or simply to limit usage. The ultimate goal of a peak power consumption analysis is the reduction of power consumption. However, at present, the reduction in the consumption of power is realized at the expense of production either directly or indirectly. In this context the usual focus of such an analysis is directed to electrical equipment such as air conditioner's since they relate to production only indirectly. This sometimes leads to a situation where, based upon a peak power consumption analysis, the air conditioning may be suddenly stopped, particularly in the hot summer seasons, to minimize and conserve energy cost independent of its effect on production. Stated otherwise, any reduction in power consumption is currently accomplished at the expense of production and/or based upon the replacement of equipment with a lower energy efficiency rating with newer equipment having a higher energy efficiency rating
The conventional method for measuring power consumption does not provide data for making an on site analysis of the production activity of one or more units(s) of electrical equipment in a facility, plant or shop and/or to determine if the equipment individually and/or in concert is consuming power wastefully. Conventional techniques are limited to measuring power consumption relative to time on a one-dimensional time axis display of power consumed (usually in kwh) relative to time. The relationship between production activity and power consumption cannot be ascertained directly from this measurement. Accordingly, since no direct relationship currently exists between production activity and power consumption an assessment between power consumption and operating cycle cannot be easily made and a time management analysis of the factory, plant, shop etc based upon production activity and power consumption is complicated. Furthermore, a precise estimation of an anticipated reduction in power consumption cannot be made using conventional techniques. This leads to management difficulty in estimating the amount of capital investment for equipment replacement and/or for human resources.